Russian patriarch: no true progress apart from moral norms

March 04, 2011

Lamenting the problems that afflict Russian society-- “corruption, disrespect for the law, alcoholism, drug addiction, criminality, the crisis of the family”-- the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said that efforts at “modernization” will fail unless they take moral norms into account.

“Modernization without a moral dimension turns to [the] unrestrained pursuit of temporary goods and pleasures, heartless technocracy, [and] results in perverted relations between people,” said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

State authorities, the patriarch added, need to recognize the indispensable role that civil associations play in renewing society. While the “actions of state authorities are absolutely necessary, these problems can't be solved only from above, without participation of people, without creative activity of an ordinary person, without people's capability to self-organization, to creating what we call institutes of civil society,” he said.

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